The Award Ceremony coincided with the C40 Mayors Summit taking place from 30 November to 2 December in Mexico City.

1. Climate Action Plans and Inventories: Portland, United States

The 2015 Climate Action Plan (CAP) is Portland’s plan focuses on equity as a key outcome of climate action and adds a consumption-based inventory to recognise the full capability of the city to achieve carbon reductions even beyond the city’s boundaries. This allows Portland to focus on high impact goods and services, and provides an analytical basis for expansion of sharing-economy business models.

2. Adaptation Plans & Assessments: Paris, France

The Paris Adaptation Strategy aims to adapt Paris to the challenges posed by climate change and future resource scarcity. The programme contains 30 objectives and 35 actions with four main objectives:
1. Protecting Parisians from extreme climate events;
2. Ensuring water, food and energy supply;
3. Living with climate change: more sustainable city planning;
4. Fostering new lifestyles and boosting solidarity.

3. Building Energy Efficiency: Melbourne & Sydney, Australia

Sponsored by an association of cities, the CitySwitch Green Office program has fostered collaboration and leadership among a growing network of business leaders across Australia who are committed to environmental excellence. The program offers support for office-based businesses to improve their day-to-day energy and sustainability performance by providing innovative information resources and tools, online and in-person support and training, and a strong network to support signatory businesses in achieving environmentally beneficial results.

4. Clean Energy: Yokohama, Japan

In 2010, the city of Yokohama began the Yokohama Smart City Project (YSCP), a five-year pilot project. The project partners with leading Japanese companies to introduce building, community and home energy management systems (EMS), applying smart grids for the energy management of households, office buildings and local communities, and introducing large-scale renewable energy and optimizing the energy supply and demand balance. . The project has reduced household energy consumption by up to 15.2% and office building consumption by up to 22.8% through demand response (DR) testing during peak times of electricity usage.

5. Finance & Economic Development: Shenzhen, PRC

The City of Shenzhen was the first of seven Chinese pilot cities to launch an emissions trading scheme (ETS), allowing companies to trade carbon emissions. The allowances in Shenzhen’s ETS are based on carbon intensity, an average rate based on the amount of carbon produced per unit of activity. The city caps the total allowances based on the results of the best performing organisations, creating healthy competition. 636 key companies and 197 large public infrastructure projects participate in the scheme, and together are responsible for 40% of the city’s carbon emissions, creating a substantial impact from the scheme.

6. Solid Waste: Kolkata, India

The Kolkata Solid Waste Management Project (KSWMIP) is a trans-municipal project for environmental development through scientific waste management and stakeholder participation. Kolkata aims to minimise waste generated by segregating recyclable wastes, composting organic waste, burying inert waste and treating septic sludge, benefiting more than a million people in 145 wards of six municipalities, on the western bank of the River Ganga.

7. Adaptation in Action: Copenhagen, Denmark

In 2015, the Copenhagen City Council officially approved the city Cloudburst Management Plan, which, over the next 20 years, aims to invest, develop and implement 300 projects that increase the level of flood protection across the entire city, while taking urban planning, maintenance and resilience into account. For the city, climate adaptation is an opportunity to create green growth, to increase the number of recreational areas across the city, and to improve the quality of life and increase health.

8. Transportation: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

In September 2015 the Light Rail Transit (LRT) in Addis Ababa, the first LRT in Sub-Saharan Africa, launched. This new LRT is changing the face of public transport in a city where almost 60% of the population walks to their destination. Featuring 35km of track, covering four lines, the system now operates at full capacity with up to 15,000 passengers per hour, per line (60,000 in total). Designed to be affordable for the average Ethiopian, this new transit technology provides comfort, ease of access, enhanced security and less pollution than alternative means of transport available to Addis’ citizens.

9. Sustainable Communities: Curitiba, Brazil

Curitiba’s Urban Agriculture Programme, started in 1986, is an evolving and ongoing project that utilises urban voids (e.g. backyards and empty lots) to promote food production, social inclusion and income generation. Run by the Curitiba Food Supply Department and its partners, it provides all necessary practical training and conditions for garden and crop production. This has resulted in numerous community gardens, school gardens, small space vegetable gardens, gardens in apartments, and many more sites of creative urban agriculture.

10. Social Equity & Climate Change: Seoul , Korea

The city of Seoul’s Energy Welfare PPP Programme is designed to ease energy poverty exacerbated by climate change and promote energy saving and sharing culture between businesses, civic groups and citizens. The multifaceted programme includes free installation of home energy improvements for poor households, a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) energy credit donation project, and training unemployed citizens to become energy consultants.